A digital camera captures and stores information digitally representing an image seen through a lens of the digital camera. The current trend in digital cameras is to reduce the size of the cameras as well as incorporating digital cameras in other devices such as cellular telephones. As the size of the camera is reduced, the camera's lens system is also reduced. All lens systems have shading issues because the amount of light in the corners of an image is always less than the light in the center of an image. A small lens system creates even greater shading issues for the camera in that the small lens system causes a bright center of the image information with vignetting towards the corners of the image. While conventional digital shading correction schemes may brighten the corners of a digital image, the schemes also amplify any noise. Thus, such schemes are not practical when the signal to noise ratio is not high enough.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method and apparatus for digital imaging without the drawbacks of prior art schemes. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the disclosure.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.